Conventional soap compositions for skin care and for general use sanitizing commonly have an unpleasant odor or are high in cost or are toxic. Chlorine bases products are harmful to the environment; also certain chlorine based products are not available to the public except in health-care institutions. The present novel soap compositions of the invention are economical and are microbicidal for preventing surface or topical infection without the drawbacks of available sanitizing soap products.
Anionic surfactants are commonly used in cleaning compositions and are also used as sanitizers or disinfecting solutions. However, for use as soap the anionic surfactant must be present in sufficient amount to generate foam for cleaning purposes, such as washing hands and for general personal hygiene, facial conditioning, and the like. The use of high concentration anionic surfactants and other surfactant containing compositions can at low pH result in damage to the skin, dryness, cracking, chapping, and irritation of the skin. Thus, anionic surfactants at low pH have not been used as microbicidal and sanitizing soaps on skin and body surfaces.
Aqueous sanitizing and disinfecting compositions which contain an anionic surfactant and an acidic component generally have short shelf lives because most surfactants lack the requisite stability in aqueous acidic solution. It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide microbicidal and sanitizing soap compositions in either solid, powder, liquid or gel form which are suitable for human and animal hygiene, such as when used for disinfecting hair, hands and skin and for general sanitizing purposes.